Cherokee County Youth Council

April 27, 2018

Part of the training involves a blind trust walk, where students learn to trust each other.

Teaching Teens to Make a Difference in our Community

The Cherokee County Youth Council is a group of enthusiastic, hardworking and creative students seeking to make an impact in our community. Through leadership training, civic involvement and prevention advocacy, students learn to have an active voice on topics that are greatly affecting their age group: marijuana and prescription drug use, alcohol consumption, cyber bullying, teen suicide and general health issues. Students in grades 7-12 are coming together to get educated on what really is going on in their community, and working with one another to be the change and lead their peers.

Our goal is to be present as an example, educator and friend to the kids who face these struggles and issues in their lives. Primarily we hope to reach kids at or before the age they’ll be in these compromising situations to help them understand that they are in control of their future, and can decide what their future looks like.

Through leadership training and civic involvement, we hope to educate our young leaders how to promote a positive message that youth do not need drugs and alcohol to have a good time, how to be a better friend by not accepting online negative messages, and how to live a better personal healthy lifestyle.

We hope to have representation from every school, homeschool, religious organization, club, team and everything in between. The council is for the YOUTH of Cherokee County who would like to make the place they live, and the friends and family they love, just a little bit better.

The students who become a part of this organization will have the opportunity to be trained by local leaders as well as experts from the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America and the Georgia Teen Institute. This experience gives students a chance to travel outside of Cherokee County and see what other teens are doing across the state and the country. Because of these amazing opportunities, we are seeking the best of the best. Teens are not too young to make a difference and have a voice, and each student in this organization will finish each year with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

There are a few meetings coming up that any student is welcomed, and encouraged, to attend:

May 6: 7 p.m. at the Cherokee FOCUS office near the Holly Springs train depot, at 100 Hickory Circle, Canton.

May 20: 1 p.m. at the Historic Canton Theatre. Youth have the option of staying after for the murder mystery “Angel Street” performed by the Cherokee Theatre Company.

The Cherokee County Youth Council is being supported by Cherokee FOCUS and grants from Drug Free Cherokee. Parents and students interested in getting involved or wanting more information can contact the Cherokee FOCUS office – Alexa Rae Heafner at 770-345-5483 or alexarae@drugfreecherokee.org, or Jeff Bennett at Leadersquest212@gmail.com.

A youth team works together in facilitated meetings during a Georgia Teen Institute leadership training session last summer.

The Cherokee County Youth Council is being supported by Cherokee FOCUS and grants from Drug Free Cherokee. Parents and students interested in getting involved or wanting more information can contact the Cherokee FOCUS office – Alexa Rae Heafner at 770-345-5483 or alexarae@drugfreecherokee.org, or Jeff Bennett at Leadersquest212@gmail.com.